The final preparations are well underway for the exciting fourth installment of the Young Arab Entrepreneurs Competition 2010. INJAZ Al-Arab will host this year’s competition in Morocco from 23rd until 25th October 2010. Students from 13 Arab nations will meet to contend for the winning title before their peers and a high-profile panel of judges.Concluding four months of vocational, experiential education and training in work readiness, financial literacy and entrepreneurship, high school and university students from Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Yemen will submit written reports of their real life businesses and present their innovative products to the judges and INJAZ al-Arab board members and other contestants.Soraya Salti, INJAZ Al-Arab Regional Director and Junior Achievement Senior Vice President MENA said, “It is no secret that the Arab world is home to talented, determined and malleable young people that are eager to learn and be equipped with basic yet necessary entrepreneurship tools . In light of the current economic challenges, it is vital that we, professionals, entrepreneurs and academies, pull together all efforts to conquer a challenging business world characterized with an absence of a formalized education system that addresses entrepreneurship.”The INJAZ al-Arab Young Arab Entrepreneurs Competition has served as an annual platform for the past four years for students to cross cultures and meet with peers and professionals from all over the Arab world. The first regional competition was held in 2007 in Amman, Jordan under the patronage of HM Queen Rania of Jordan. The competition was later duplicatied in Oman and Lebanon in 2008 and 2009, respectively, to build on the success of the first event. During the regional competition, a group of leaders and professionals will pilot a panel of judges that works closely with INJAZ al-Arab to encourage and promote Arab youth and their entrepreneurial skills and drive. The competition will involve socially engaging activities for students and mentors and an exclusive gala dinner finale’ where the judges will assess students’ products or services based on criterion that address marketing plans, management reports, thorough net profit and loss statements and environmental considerations. While young people constitute a third of the working age population in MENA, they account for half of the unemployed, the highest rate in the world. INJAZ al-Arab works to combat this problem by recognizing the validity of self employment as a career option and by teaching practical business and economic courses.

Salti added, “The support of INJAZ programs provides an opportunity for the private sector to contribute to the development of youth in this area. Our 4th annual competition is testament to the success of our programs in efforts to alleviate the employment challenges in our region and empower youth to take reigns of their economic future. Our success is an outcome of our ongoing partnership with the private sector.”

“We are looking forward to meet in Morocco this year to be in the presence of a talented group of students that have come a long way to pioneer entrepreneurial start ups and represent their countries most positively. We are confident that the caliber of the these student enterprises will astound all of us!” concluded Salti. INJAZ Al-Arab is a non profit confederation of national operations collaborating with corporate volunteers and Ministries of Education to provide entrepreneurship education and experiential training to Arab youth. Operating in 13 countries across the Middle East and North Africa region, INJAZ al-Arab is an affiliate of Junior Achievement World Wide and with the help of 16,691corporate volunteers INJAZ al-Arab has already trained 678, 487students from schools since its inception in Jordan in 1999.